POLS (3)- Political Parties
why create unwanted parties?
-they build stable Legislative and Electoral Alliances -mobilize voters -develop new electoral techniques to reach voters -Use Party Labels and Enforce Collective Responsibility
From the end of Reconstruction in 1876 until 1896, the third American party system settled into place. The Democrats and Republicans competed on nearly even terms.
4th party system
New Deal and Republican coalition=
5th party system
Jefferson challenged ____ for the presidency
Adams • recruited candidates for state and local offices across the states • gave Jefferson the ability to remove the Federalists and their influence from the White House and Congress
Other third parties that shook the political system:
Anti-Masonic Party and American Party ["Know- Nothings"] (pre-Civil War)
political party as issues
Burke
A body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed
Burke definition of political party
Republican party comes up as a third party system during the
Civil War
sought to protect the interests of farmers, tradesman, and agrarian states in general, and supported diplomatic relations with France; would later become the Democratic party and oldest political party in the world
Jefferson and Madison faction
Today party coalitions still retain strong traces of the
New Deal alignment
built winning coalitions
Nixon, Reagan, and Bush • Combined affluent economic conservatives with middle, working class social conservatives and the Christian Right. • They declared war on taxation, regulation, and welfare. • Made prominent their concerns over law and order and traditional family values. • Neither party has a completely stable and unified coalition.
the Democrats reacted to a severe economic downturn by adopting the_________ ______ and they nominated ____ ______ _____ as their presidential nominee
People's Party (Populist) platform William Jennings Bryan
dragging ex.
Ralph Nader
Tend to favor a smaller, cheaper federal government. • Advocate lower taxes. • Prefer less regulation of business
Republicans
Most salient change:
Republicans grew stronger. Democrats maintain an edge in party identifiers, but those who vote at higher rates tend to be Republicans (higher levels of formal education and higher incomes).
basic organizational structures set
Second party system
the changes have occurred gradually and at different times, so the new system's starting date is unclear. Most salient change: • ___________ grew stronger.
Sixth party system Republicans
The presidential election of 1824 featured four serious candidates (initially five) -Since no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives -Clay eliminated and throws his support behind John Quincy Adams - who he agreed with on most political issues. This results in Adams overtaking Jackson in the House. Clay eventually becomes Adams' Secretary of State.
The "Corrupt Bargain"
rise of party machines
Third party system
Parties were widely considered to be a threat to
good government and public order
As the size of the electorate grew, so did the task of
identifying and attracting supporters
supporting populist monetary policy would:
increase the money supply • ease interest rates • and therefore lift the pressure on debtors, which included farmers and westerners
encourage the party to adopt a new position
leading
politics are not simply • a larger, more dispersed electorate had to be reached • parties turned to mass communication: newspapers, pamphlets, public letters, and printed speeches
local
Party entrepreneurs have simply redesigned party organizations to operate more effectively in today's _______-based, __________-centered electoral arena
media candidate
Most modern democracies have
more than two parties
Jackson and Van Buren introduce the ____ _____ _____; promoted as a more democratic alternative to the discredited congressional caucus
national party convention
organized competition requires
negotiating and maintaining electoral alliances
The _______ process enables the parties to solve the coordination problem posed by competing presidential aspirants
nomination
Organized competition for votes in Congress leads directly to
organized competition for votes in congressional elections
Electoral machinery had been managed through
patronage
Our system of elections, where only a single winner is chosen by ______ vote, generally reduced competition to
plurality; two
Parties are motivated to attract voters and get them to the
polls/registered
party line voting is partisans are
prevalent polarized
party machines lead to the
progressive era Reformers sought to destroy the machines by depriving them of patronage
An alternative to the American system is one based on
proportional representation
system in which people do not vote for a person- they vote for the political party with which they most agree
proportional representation (PR system)
With geographic representation, the legislature is divided according to districts with each legislator representing a particular
region
Republicans dominated and framed Democrats as taken over by agrarian interests UNTIL
the Great Depression
Jackson's strong presidency and personality generated some opposition and led to the creation of the
whig party
Today national party conventions merely certify the ______ of primary elections instead of choosing the presidential _______
winners nominees
two party system has:
-banned fusion tickets -Erected legal hurdles to getting on the ballot
Men have become more Republican over time • Women have not — creating the famous "______ _____" between parties.
gender gap
most important incentive of political parties
use party labels
Expediency persists: Parties developed and continue to endure because they have proven so ______ to politicians and voters.
useful
The more accurately a candidate's label predicts behavior in office, the more useful it is to ____ and the more it will continue to be used
voters
Electoral parties initiated new relationships between
voters and elected leaders
political party as elections
Downs
A team of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election
Downs definition of political party
People tend to vote strategically, i.e. if a voter's favorite party has no chance to win, they turn to the less objectionable of the major-party candidates who does have a chance to win. This is known as
Duverger's Law
Only after promise not to repeal the New Deal, but to administer it frugally, election of Republican
Eisenhower
Monroe was reelected with no competition four years later. There was so little party conflict, the time was called the
Era of Good Feelings
pattern of coalitional nature of American parties clearly illustrated
Fifth party system
creation of national parties
First party system
fall of party machines
Fourth party system
leading ex.
George Wallace
promoted commercial and manufacturing interests following the British economic model
Hamilton faction (federalists)
The American first party system was born in the first few Congresses as leaders with opposing views on national issues fought to prevail. The conflict involved two opposing factions:
Hamilton faction (federalists) Jefferson and Madison faction
big 4 of corrupt bargain
William H. Crawford (Treasury Secretary) John Quincy Adams (SOS) Henry Clay (House Speaker) Andrew Jackson (Senator)
Transition from political leadership from successful, prominent men (elites) who served out of duty to
ambitious people (many with status but it was no longer essential) who latched onto the party for personal advancement.
The Constitution's provisions for enacting laws and electing leaders put a huge premium on
building majority alliances across institutions and electoral units
parties are designed to excite voters emotionally so that they would be motivated to vote and avoid the
free-rider problem
have a personal stake in value of label
candidates
Party labels offer a shorthand cue that keeps voting decisions ____ and _____ ...as long as the labels are ______
cheap and simple informative
The first and most important issue was _____ _____ for African Americans
civil rights
Presidents were nominated by
congressional caucuses
no longer choose the party's candidate; caucus activists and voters in primaries do. They are important because of the image of the party that it portrays
conventions
Despite disdain, voters still rely heavily on party
cues
The variety and frequency of elections generated by the multilayered federal system made party management a
full-time job
allowed minor parties to boost their votes by nominating candidates also nominated by major parties
fusion tickets
poliical parties create
democracy
• Are more inclined to regulate business in behalf of consumers and the environment. • Are more supportive of government programs designed to improve domestic welfare. • Would spend less on national defense. • Are more concerned with "fairness" and equality.
democrats
Since the beginning, the major parties have been
diverse, unwieldy coalitions
encourage the party to move back to an old position
dragging
two types of third parties
dragging leading
After the adoption of the Constitution, suffrage expanded
egalitarian spirit of the frontier which gradually eclipsed the habits of deference
Each political party submits a list of names prior to the
election
T/F Republicans supported Populist monetary policy (making silver as well as gold a monetary standard):
false Democrats
T/F there was no political conflict during Era of Good Feelings
false -it took place within one party rather than between two (Democratic-Republicans)
Networks of leaders and activists assembled to mobilize electoral support became the
first party organizations
To maximize their vote share relative to their opponents, parties engage in ______ maneuvers
flanking
Today, full-time professionals manage
the parties
Parties developed because the institutional structures and processes established by the Constitution made them
too useful to forgo
in the early days of the Republic, electioneering followed
traditional forms
T/F Conventions no longer choose the party's candidate; caucus activists and voters in primaries do
true
T/F Display at convention is not without risk- party activists often hold more extreme views on the issues of the day than do ordinary party voters
true
T/F Electoral alliances fail if they cannot get enough people to vote for their candidates
true
T/F having party labels requires some sacrifice of preference (if you don't necessarily agree with party but do not want to resist party label)
true
T/F not all members of a party support their party's modal positions.
true
T/F the Constitution does not mention political parties
true
T/F the patronage system was destroyed with the reforms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
true
the U.S. has a ___- party system
two
Major parties, with incentives to expand their electoral coalitions, help maintain the
two-party system
geographic representation fragments the political system and thus promotes the
two-party system
Overall political and organizational expedience may explain parties' existence, but the activities that maintain them contribute to successful democratic politics in
unforeseen ways
proportional representation features:
• A party will get roughly the same proportion of seats in parliament as the proportion of the votes it received in the election. • Proportional representation promotes ideological representation and helps to preserve smaller parties. • Votes for their other candidates are not wasted. • Because people have diverse ideas, proportional representation tends to produce multi- party systems. • Some countries try to combine the benefits of both systems.
Decentralized, Fragmented Party Coalitions features:
• People can specifically identify their representative and they know who to contact with their opinions. • Representatives must maintain contact with the voters who will decide whether they return to the legislature. • This system favors moderate political parties that can create coalitions to gain sizeable amounts of voters
Consequences of Progressive Reforms:
• Turnout declined due to tighter registration laws, the Australian ballot, and literacy tests. • Shift from parties to candidates => seed of candidate-centered politics • Incentives shifted from material to non- material: so did who participated: working class no longer base; middle class instead • Parties weaker, but more entrenched => treated as quasi public entities • Advent of primary elections encouraged dissidents to work within the established parties
there are major incentives for party building Political Parties are incentivized to:
• build stable legislative and electoral alliances • mobilize voters • develop new electoral techniques • use party labels and enforce collective responsibility
The Republican coalition was a smaller, inverted image of the Democratic coalition:
• business and professional people • upper-income Protestants • residents of small towns and cities in the Northeast and the Midwest
John Quincy Adams with help of Martin Van Buren. Established:
• central committees set up in Washington and Nashville • promoted the formation of state organization which promoted Jackson clubs and committees in towns • chain of newspapers established to support the cause • local politicians saw Jackson as a vehicle for their own ambitions
Progressives sought reforms:
• civil service reform (Pendleton Act) • Australian (Secret) ballot • primary elections
The presidential selection rules
• incentives for building electoral alliances across districts and states • organizational work required for the collective pursuit of political office results in a national party organization
Federalists associated with unpopular policies:
• lost election and began to fade from national politics • on wrong side of War of 1812 • Rufus King crushed by James Monroe in 1816 and Monroe reelected without significant opposition in 1820
The Republican Party:
• organized in 1854 as a coalition of forces on the issue of slavery; example of a successful challenge to the two-party system. • Additional focus on protective tariff & a transcontinental railway as well as promising farmers free land for homesteading => appealing to business and commercial interests • serves as one example of a successful challenge to the two-party system
party machines:
• party organizations reached their peak of development during the third party system • built on simple principles of exchange: favors and services for votes on election day • Party machines were often not discernible from the local government • regularly attacked as corrupt and inefficient
Republicans win with Abraham Lincoln and
• triggered South's secession from Union and then the Civil War • Republicans emerged as the party of victory and union • Defeated oncoming Vampire scourge
Basic pattern of two party competition continues:
• two broad, fractious coalitions persists • party coalitions remain fractious because party entrepreneurs pursuing majorities must combine diverse groups that are neither natural allies nor disposed to pay high conformity costs for the sake of the party
As party-system formed, it changed, but a number of basic features remained throughout:
• two-party competition • decentralized, fragmented, party coalitions • professional politicians
FDR and the New Deal Coalition:
• white segregationists with northern African Americans • progressive intellectuals with urban machine politicians • union members and poor farmers • Catholics and Baptists